The belly dancing party last Friday was nice. The performances were really good but the music in between the performances was way too loud. I left at the end with my ears stoppered up. My own performance (with two other ladies) went very well. I made one little mistake but was quick enough to correct so that not many people noticed it.

My mom and Moniek were there too, participating in the workshop and watching my performance. When my mother saw me in my self-made costume she immediately went to the photographer that was present and ordered a picture taken. She bought 2 prints of the photo. One for herself and one for my father. Shortly after my performance they left because the music was too loud and there wasn't much to do for them anyway. Matthijs stayed till after the second block of performances and I stayed until the last one and then went home. We made a few videos that we (all belly dance students and teachers) will be watching this evening at our last get together before the summer break.

So, now everything that I can feel nervous for has passed. Time for some costume plans for Taboe. I already made a mock-up for a shoe and started on the 'real thing' (in couch leather...) but I need something more sturdy to keep the stitches tight. The tutorial writes about using a thong cut out of the same leather as the shoe piece, but my leather is too weak for that. It would snap at the first pull. The tutorial says to use buckskin, but I don't have that (and it's mighty expensive!).

Yesterday I sketched a costume design, drawing each layer of clothing. I think I'll need some 'under clothes' made out of linen or cotton to keep me warm underneath the leather and furs. At the Celtic summer festival (which was quite small...) there was a stand that sold skirts and poncho's of the softest leather, but one skirt costs 170 Euros... a bit much. We wrote down their url to think about it and check their website later, but the website sucks. It lists only a few products. Too bad.

The cow skin I ordered via Marktplaats has been delivered. It's huge and pretty. A very good deal for 50 Euros. At the moment I'm buying a doe-skin and negotiating about two boar skins (one for Matthijs). If all goes well I won't need any reindeer hides.

Perhaps I'll try to make my own shelter too (out of canvas... no hides there, that would be way too expensive), even though one of our group is planning on making a big shelter. So far I'm the only female in the group so a separate tent could be explained. I just want to know if I can pull it off. And I might buy a few straw mats from the Xenos and try to make a cape/cloak out of them. Otzi the iceman mummy found in the Alps was wearing a cloak made of woven grass against the rain.

Exciting! The only thing is that testing the costume parts at this moment with the nice weather won't tell much about how it will feel at the end of October.